"Thank you, thank you," Mary Chun
says. "I appreciate that because
sometimes I don't feel like moving. It's
nice because I don't have to be thinking about cooking."

Mark and his wife Cindy have been
volunteering for the past year – delivering a hot meal with a warm smile every
Saturday – along with Thanksgiving and Christmas.

"Christmas is an important day
for 'ohana and these people need help on Christmas day just like any other
day," Mark said.

"We don't have family here. We moved here and all our family is on the
mainland so it's a nice opportunity for us to give a little something and get
connected," Cindy added.

The Swink's are two of over 200
volunteers who spent their Holiday delivering a hot lu'au plate – complete with
lau lau and kalua turkey and of course, haupia for dessert – to more than 650
homebound seniors.

"Retirement and stuff don't go
that far and then, plus my wife been sick and then I got sick and that just
made it worse. So I was awfully glad to
have Meals on Wheels – they stood by for me, all the way through," explained
George Kaeliwai, Jr. with a smile on his face when Mark and Cindy arrived at
his door.

For the Swink's, Holidays are when
they usually get to meet their recipients' families – all of whom are always so
grateful.

"She depends on the Meals on
Wheels. It's great. They come out at Christmas and Thanksgiving. I appreciate
it," explained Wendall Kaanoi, describing how he visits his grandmother
who just turned 93 as often as he can, but is thankful the Swink's are also
able to check-in on her.

The retired military family says they
may be on the front-lines, but there are so many other volunteers who help make
the deliveries happen.

"This morning they were probably
there somewhere between 2 and 4 a.m. to start cooking and assembling and then
they have the assembly line putting it all together, putting the meals together,
getting the beverages together and boxed for each route, for each driver as
they pick them up – so there's a lot of different things that go on behind the
scenes. We have the easy part," Cindy
said with a laugh.

In 2015, the Federal government passed the Every Student Succeeds Act, allowing states to limit the amount of time that students take standardized tests. A similar bill is traveling through the Hawaii legislature.

In 2015, the Federal government passed the Every Student Succeeds Act, allowing states to limit the amount of time that students take standardized tests. A similar bill is traveling through the Hawaii legislature.